Yes! The success of the town will be determined by how much money its businesses can bring in from outside the town. I hope to start tech businesses to sustain the town and enable growth.
The big difficulty of traditional cooperatives is that they are subject to local markets for necessities: housing, health care, energy, transportation, and food. By starting a cooperative as a town, we can save big on many of these things.
For example, a cooperative in San Francisco has huge capital costs for each resident for housing. The cost per resident in major cities is dominated by housing. A cooperative built in a rural area has negligible housing costs. But building in a rural area brings some interesting problems.
Health care is also a large cost. The town will have its own clinic to save on that. If the town can grow fast enough, it can build its own hospital and save enormous amounts on health care. The hospital can also earn money by treating people from the surrounding area. I wish to retire in a town with a hospital.
Much modern housing is built without energy efficient options. This is because buyers are either ignorant or they prioritize short-term costs over long-term costs. An extra $200/mo in energy bills isn't so much when you're paying $1000/mo in mortgage. But once the mortgage is paid off, that $200/mo feels like a lot and they regret the decision to skip the architect consultation, triple-pane windows, and heat-recovery ventilators. A cooperative can have the expertise and foresight to optimize for long-term housing energy efficiency. This is good for the environment, the residents, and the cooperative's finances.
Cars use lots of energy. They wear out and depreciate. Accidents destroy quality of life and waste tons of money on medical bills. Roads are extremely expensive to build and maintain. Road damage is proportional to the fourth power of vehicle weight. A town without cars and trucks won't have these costs.
The big difficulty of traditional cooperatives is that they are subject to local markets for necessities: housing, health care, energy, transportation, and food. By starting a cooperative as a town, we can save big on many of these things.
For example, a cooperative in San Francisco has huge capital costs for each resident for housing. The cost per resident in major cities is dominated by housing. A cooperative built in a rural area has negligible housing costs. But building in a rural area brings some interesting problems.
Health care is also a large cost. The town will have its own clinic to save on that. If the town can grow fast enough, it can build its own hospital and save enormous amounts on health care. The hospital can also earn money by treating people from the surrounding area. I wish to retire in a town with a hospital.
Much modern housing is built without energy efficient options. This is because buyers are either ignorant or they prioritize short-term costs over long-term costs. An extra $200/mo in energy bills isn't so much when you're paying $1000/mo in mortgage. But once the mortgage is paid off, that $200/mo feels like a lot and they regret the decision to skip the architect consultation, triple-pane windows, and heat-recovery ventilators. A cooperative can have the expertise and foresight to optimize for long-term housing energy efficiency. This is good for the environment, the residents, and the cooperative's finances.
Cars use lots of energy. They wear out and depreciate. Accidents destroy quality of life and waste tons of money on medical bills. Roads are extremely expensive to build and maintain. Road damage is proportional to the fourth power of vehicle weight. A town without cars and trucks won't have these costs.